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Darin

ABOUT TRIP: Interestingly enough, D never seems to know what the score is. It’s not that he doesn’t care about winning, he just seriously can’t ever remember what the score is. As the winning shot falls through the net in even the most bitterly competitive of games, it is fairly common for D to keep playing a few moments longer, before noticing that everybody is walking off of the court. He will then ask, with surprise, if the game is over.

One of Trip’s big strengths is his technical prowess in hand-to-hand combat, which lends well to the contact-heavy sport of Lunchsketball. He is a student of the martial art Krav Maga. This is the street fighting technique used by Israeli Defense Forces. Krav is known for its focus on real-world practicality, extreme brutality, and the kicking of aggressors in the gonad region. When he’s not playing hoops, Trip may be found in the dojo, studying and practicing efficient techniques for ruining Palestinians.

Triple has made an art-form of intercepting cross-court passes thrown by Phil. Phil will heave a basketball all the way across the court whenever he sees a teammate on the other side of the half-court line. He can’t help it. A sort of tunnel vision afflicts Phil, and so he often overlooks the lurking Trip, who exploits this situation ruthlessly. It is like shooting fish in a barrel to D. He is sometimes called Cromarte, because there was a year when Antonio Cromarte had about 50 interceptions for the Chargers and that is his legacy in San Diego.

PLAYERSTATS

SPECIAL SKILLS: Remembering to guard Gary. Luring defenders into forgetting to guard him even though he is standing right under the basket. Severely injuring aggressors.

INJURIES: One ankle makes troublingly sharp, snapping sound with each step. Occassionally complains that he can’t turn head to the left. You’ll understand when you get to be D’s age. Right now you don’t know squat. You think you do, but you don’t.

POSITION: Cornerback, safety.

Lunchsketball teams seldom play a man-to-man defense. There are reasons for this; for example, there is yet to be found a basketball player who Gary could defend on his own for an entire possession. So it is that Lunchsketball is one of the rare places that you can find a zone defense being played on blacktop. A zone defense is a complicated thing to run, however, and the zones at lunch are less than perfect. There are some big holes in these zones. Which brings the discussion back to Trip. Trip really highlights the imperfections of the lunch-time zone defense. What he will do, repeatedly, every game, 5 days a week if necessary, is he will observe the zone and notice when the zone tends to get pulled away from area that can be described as “right-under-the-basket”. This would seem to be really the most important area that any zone should cover. As mentioned earlier, these lunch-time zones are less than perfect. D will notice when the zone is neglecting this particular area, and, when paired with an alert passer, he will receive the ball there for a wide open shot from 1 foot away.